The best gift of all
by goldenboat
Summary: This story revolves around Niki, the little son of shipping tycoon Alexander Petros and his husband Hephaistion. This story glimpses at Mother's day celebrations in the Petros household over the ages. What's the best gift for a mom?


**Past…**

Mother's Day celebrations in the Petros mansion always began on several levels. Some were clearly visible to all. While others were hidden from the critical eye of the public.

Just like every year, Phillip and Olympia Petros have made massive preparations to celebrate Mother's Day. It was a big party, charity ball and charity dinner rolled into one…aimed at dazzling the eyes the rivals.

At the heart of all this was none other than Olympia Petros. Dressed in a diamond encrusted Paolo Sebastian gown..she resembled the very personification of maternal love. Everyone knew how deeply her heart cried at the plight of all the motherless children in the world. Her charity ball and dinner held on this auspicious day had a much publicized aim of looking after the orphans in the country. The funds to be collected in this gala would all go to various charities all over the country.

You can easily ask how a rich man's dining and debauchery can save the poor. But you better not.

To Phillip this party was nothing but a diplomatic maneuver to keep friends and investors close….and rivals closer. The bill of this Mother's day party ran to millions every year. But to Phillip this was utterly essential to maintain his hold in the financial sector. Dressed in the priciest Alexander Amosu suit , the head of Petros industries sat their leisurely sipping _Chateau Margaux_ with an air of satisfaction. The actual party was yet to start…and he was basking in the glow of praises thrown at him.

Beside Phillip, his wife Olympia sported a similar self praising smile. This was Olympia's check mate to all her rivals who wanted to dethrone her from her reigning position as the queen of page three circuit. Her joy doubled when she saw her lover entering the ball.

Yes…the party would start any moment.

But at a very different level..someone else was preparing for Mother's Day with all his might as well. Dressed in his little spider man footy pajamas, little Alexander Petros was busy coloring away on a piece of paper with his crayons.

This was his gift for mom on Mother's day. Nini had bought him new crayons much to his delight and he was putting them to great use. It was his dream that he infused in the page.

Alex , mom and dad holding hands and laughing with joy.

He knew he was not really good at drawing…but he hoped his mom liked his gift.

Soon the evening rolled to night. All the elegant guests had shed their inhibitions due to wine and had turned the so called charity dinner into a late night orgy. Little Alex waited and waited for his mom…

and she arrived at last, swaying in the arms of her handsome lover.

Eager to please his mom, Alex ran to her, drawing in hand.

"This is for you Mom!" little hands shook with anticipation as they handed over the precious drawing to Olympia. She screwed her eyebrows to focus on the scrap of paper and looked questioningly at the little boy.

"What did I tell you about wasting your time Alexander?" Unseen to her, the little face dimmed further. Alex didn't know what he had expected.

May be he had expected Mom to like it. At least she could have given him a smile. Moms smile…don't they?

"I..I made it for you.." little eyes filled with tears as the drunk woman threw the page in the face of the little boy.

"Clearly we need to fire your art tutor and improve your tastes! You have inherited it from that bastard father of yours!"

The mother of the world departed with her lover…her heart filled with sympathy for all motherless kids of the world. May be it was a bit too filled…because she hadn't any left for her own son.

Standing in the corner Elena's heart broke into shards. She knew this would happen..but she was powerless to stop it. She picked up the little boy who hid her face in her chest shaking with heart wrenching sobs.

Elena spent that entire night cuddled up with Alex in his little bed. She filled it with fairy tales which were rather poor substitution for a cruel mother. But soon the tears stopped and Alex fell into deep sleep clutching Elena's little finger. Elena didn't let go. Next morning she received the best mother's day gift of her life. It broke her heart into pieces for her Alex and yet filled her with boundless love. Alex had given her the drawing instead.

**Present…**

Mother's Day celebrations in the Petros mansion always began on several levels. Some were clearly visible to all. While others were hidden from the critical eye of the public.

Just like the last two years, Tion's husband and son had gone crazy in preparing for what Niki dubbed as "Dada's Day" .

To speak the truth, Tion always thought that it was a bit too much to expect a boy of three to realize the full significance of Mother's Day.

Last year, Niki was two. He had taken Tion's expensive white dress shirt and promptly filled it with red polka dots.

Tion entirely blamed his husband for this. He knew that giving finger painting set to a toddler was a BAD idea. After filling their walls with numerous stick figures, purple clouds and red flowers..Niki had finally thought that ruining his dada's favorite shirt would be the best gift for the Dada's day.

And it was.

Much to Alex's amusement, Tion wore the designer shirt to the delight of his little son and showed it to his friends with pride.

And he never washed it.

This year Niki is three…and a little terror in the sandbox. Last night he had discussed his plans with his dads in great detail.

"What do you wanna do on Dada's day Niks?" Alex asked his little son who was sitting on his back on their bed.

Niki scrunched his chubby face as if figuring out the solution of the Middle-East crisis and scratched the tip of his nose. Tion shook his head in fond exasperation. His son had inherited every one of Alex's little gestures and it never failed to make him smile.

"Love dada an bayk cookies?" Their little parrot has been learning from his beloved Nini.

Tion broke into a hearty laugh.

"Oh..so you don't wanna love me on other days?" he teased.

Niki blushed to the tip of his ears but that didn't stop him from jumping into his dada's arms. Kissing Tion's forehead the little bow whispered.

"Luv you evvyday dada. But tomow is spesal!"

And 'Spesal' it was.

Niki and his golden haired dad decorated the entire house with streamers and balloons. The entire house looked like a set from Battlefield Earth.

The little boy insisted on doing everything himself…and it took the entire army of three adults to stop him from operating the oven.

"Wook dada? Dadaaaaa? Awe you wooking at me?" the little monarch implored to his cyan eyed dad who was sipping coffee in the kitchen. Caffeine….he really needed it now. Alex was baking cookies and Tion wanted to keep an eye on him just in case he burnt his hands. He did it last year.

Responding to his son's request he walked into the drawing room to find him standing precariously on a stool that was balanced on a chair ,with a big bunch of balloons in hand.

"Niki..nooo….get down …" he didn't even finish when it happened. The little boy tumbled head first to the floor and shrieked. Tion's blood turned to water as he saw blood. He saw his husband cradling up the toddler but found himself rooted to the spot. Niki bleeding.

The words Niki, hurt, blood engulfed his heart and he couldn't move in terror. But a pitiful cry for dada broke his reverie and he pulled his son from Alex's arms. The blond man had gone pale and his hands shook as he called the doctor.

"Tion? Hey…hey..Tion?" Alex patted his husband's cheeks to make him focus.

"He'll be okay…Glen says we gotta staunch the flow." They ran to the kitchen in their effort to stop the flow.

"Just press it with his baby." Elena pressed a cold wash cloth to Tion's shaking fingers. All of a sudden the house had been sucked of all colors and all they saw was blood.

Their family doctor Glen and his team arrived within minutes. He told the nervous parents what they hated to hear.

"It appears to be a minor cut Alex. But we gotta put him in anesthesia for the stitches."

"Stiches?" replied a cyan eyed man with a broken voice. Niki had been wrested from his hands by the medical team and he had closed his eyes to avoid seeing Niki getting injected. He hid his face in his husband's shoulders.

"Yes..it's a standard procedure for kids this young. Don't worry…it's mild." the kind doctor gave a wan smile.

Tion wasn't there during the stitches. He couldn't .He entered Niki's bedroom to collect his blankie and pillows as the doctors had suggested. He smiled at the irony as the sharp metallic tang of blood invaded his nostrils. Just like last year, Niki had managed to ruin his dada's shirt.

After dressing the wound was over..Glen and his team had left with strong assurances and advice not to move him. The pale faced young men hovered over the couch where their little prince slept.

They waited with bated breath for the little eyelids to flutter.

And they did. Just as the doctors had predicted, anesthesia wore off pretty soon and the tiny boy opened his drowsy looked at his dads and smiled…as if the horrible morning was but a dream.

The cyan eyes of the brunette filled with tears as he tenderly kissed the bandaged forehead. Alex huffed in relief.

"Hey Niks? How's my baby?" he whispered into the little ears unmindful of the little fingers holding his hairs captive.

Niki looked at his dada and pa. Had they been crying? Pa's hair looked like a bird's nest and dada's cheeks had splotches of red as if he had been sad.

"Don cwy!" he whispered clearly not on board with his parents. It's Dada's day and dada and pa had to smile. It's a rule. All of a sudden he remembered. Nini had taught him to wish and he had forgotten about it entirely. Maybe..that's why dada and pa were crying. Niki hadn't wished them yet.

He extended his chubby arms invitingly at his dads and gave a gleeful little shout.

"Hoppy Dada's Day! Hungwy..can I's haf cookies?" For Tion, the day meant a lot of things. Streamers, balloons, songs, merriment, clumsily packaged gifts, love and laughter. But the lisping baby words from his son's lips surpassed all of them.

It was the best gift of all.

"Hoppy Dada's Day my Niki!" he whispered.

Late that night, Tion sat staring at the face of his son blissfully asleep between them. Alex had flat out refused to let him sleep alone and Tion had agreed.

"Hey Alex?" The brunette murmured at the man snoozing with his head in Tion's lap.

"Hmmm?"

"Next Dada's day?"

"Uhuh!" Alex had no idea where this was going.

"We all go to Bahamas okay?"

Alexander Petros turned on his back to look questioningly at his husband.

"One more Dada's day like this and I will have grey hair." Tion tweaked his husband's nose who laughed in return. He agreed. Maybe next year.

Tion swallowed uncomfortably. All those burnt cookies were doing a number in his stomach.

You didn't think Tion would throw Dada's day cookies away…

Did you?


End file.
